Jean-Baptiste "Illinois" Jacquet, a powerful-sounding tenor saxophonist whose legendary solo on Lionel Hampton's "Flying Home" set in motion a style for generations of young musicians, died Thursday in his New York home of a heart attack. He was 81.

In 1991, Mr. Jacquet performed with saxophonists Hank Crawford, Ernie Watts and Nathan Davis during the 21st Annual Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert.

"He was a powerhouse tenor player capable of shaking the arena with one note," said Davis, who directs the jazz studies program at the University of Pittsburgh.

"The first tenor saxophonist I ever heard was Illinois Jacquet. A preacher who lived near us when I was a kid growing up in Kansas City introduced me to his music. His influence was enormous. Stanley Turrentine was influenced by Illinois. There's a legion of tenor players who came from Texas who were influenced by Illinois. When people think of Illinois, they think all he was was a honker, but he had a gentle side. He was a complete musician."

So much so that he even mastered the bassoon.

During his long and illustrious career, Mr. Jacquet performed with such greats as Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald.

He was born Jean-Baptiste Jacquet in Broussard, La., a tiny town in the heart of Cajun and Creole country. Mr. Jacquet's mother was a Sioux Indian and his father, Gilbert Jacquet, a French-Creole railroad worker and part-time musician.

Mr. Jacquet's nickname, Illinois, came from the Indian word lliniwek," which means superior men. He dropped the name Jean-Baptiste when the family moved from Louisiana to Houston because there were so few French-speaking people there.

One of six children, Mr. Jacquet began performing at age 3, tap dancing to the sounds of his father's band. He later joined the group as its drummer but discovered his true talents when a music teacher introduced him to the saxophone.

After graduating from high school, Mr. Jacquet moved to California where he soon earned a reputation as a little guy who played a lot of saxophone.

In 1942, as a member of Lionel Hampton's big band, he blew himself into jazz history for his classic solo on "Flying Home."

Years later, during a feature on National Public Radio's "Jazz Profiles With Nancy Wilson," Mr. Jacquet said he was nervous when he initially played the solo and asked the section leader for advice. The leader told him to "play your style." Mr. Jacquet wasn't sure what his style was.

The style became known as "screeching and honking," a hard-driving, in-your-face sound that was drenched in the blues. The style was emulated, largely ineffectually, by everyone from rhythm and blues, to rock 'n' roll players.

Mr. Jacquet appeared with Cab Calloway's band in the Lena Horne movie "Stormy Weather" and in the Academy Award-nominated short film "Jammin' the Blues" with Billie Holiday and Lester Young. He replaced Young in the Count Basie Orchestra and was given the nickname "The King" by Basie.

Mr. Jacquet recorded more than 300 original compositions, including three of his biggest hits, "Black Velvet," "Robbins Nest" and "Port of Rico."

During the 1960s and '70s, Mr. Jacquet toured extensively in Europe. In 1983, he became the first jazz musician to become artist-in-residence at Harvard University.

In 1993, he played "C-Jam Blues" with Bill Clinton, an amateur saxophonist, during the former president's inaugural ball. In 2000, he received the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Award for Artistic Excellence and continued to perform with his big band.

"I was always trying to get him to come back to the seminar," said Davis.

"He was really into his big band. He said he would come back to Pittsburgh 'if he could bring his band.' "